And now his fiendish crime has been avenged; Let us back to our wives and children.--Say, What did he mean by those last muttered words, "Brothers in spirit, brothers in deed are we"? FRAGMENT The hand of Fate cannot be stayed, The course of Fate cannot be steered, By all the gods that man has made, Nor all the devils he has feared, Not by the prayers that might be prayed In all the temples he has reared. See! In your very midst there dwell Ten thousand thousand blacks, a wedge Forged in the furnaces of hell, And sharpened to a cruel edge By wrong and by injustice fell, And driven by hatred as a sledge. A wedge so slender at the start-- Just twenty slaves in shackles bound-- And yet, which split the land apart With shrieks of war and battle sound, Which pierced the nation's very heart, And still lies cankering in the wound. Not all the glory of your pride, Preserved in story and in song, Can from the judging future hide, Through all the coming ages long, That though you bravely fought and died, You fought and died for what was wrong. 'Tis fixed--for them that violate The eternal laws, naught shall avail Till they their error expiate; Nor shall their unborn children fail To pay the full required weight Into God's great, unerring scale. Think not repentance can redeem, That sin his wages can withdraw; No, think as well to change the scheme Of worlds that move in reverent awe; Forgiveness is an idle dream, God is not love, no, God is law. THE WHITE WITCH O, brothers mine, take care! Take care! The great white witch rides out to-night, Trust not your prowess nor your strength; Your only safety lies in flight; For in her glance there is a snare, And in her smile there is a blight. The great white witch you have not seen? Then, younger brothers mine, forsooth, Like nursery children you have looked For ancient hag and snaggled tooth; But no, not so; the witch appears In all the glowing charms of youth. Her lips are like carnations red, Her face like new-born lilies fair, Her eyes like ocean waters blue, She moves with subtle grace and air, And all about her head there floats The golden glory of her hair. But though she always thus appears In form of youth and mood of mirth, Unnumbered centuries are hers, The infant planets saw her birth; The child of throbbing Life is she, Twin sister to the greedy earth. And back behind those smiling lips, And down within those laughing eyes, And underneath the soft caress Of hand and voice and purring sighs, The shadow of the panther lurks, The spirit of the vampire lies.